Mystic Midway at SYMBIOSIS ECLIPSE 2017

Big Summit Prairie, Ochoco National Forest, Oregon, August 17th -23rd

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The recent SYMBIOSIS Eclipse Festival, held on a remote high desert prairie in Oregon, saw40k Global Revelers, Visionaries, Beauty & Truth Seekers and party people from communitiesall around the planet converge for one unforgettable week of Conscious Celebration, Music, Visionary Art, workshops, presentations and immersive art installations.

A full Solar Eclipse amplified the festival energies of this profound, once-in-a-lifetime experience for those that braved long lines, harsh conditions and ‘the prolonged derangement of the senses’ that comes with these sorts of Festival Pilgrimages.

Mystic Midway was honored to participate with THE SYMBIOAT, an immersive art & music installation / Riverboat Nightclub that hosted nightly Jazz Ensembles, Brass Bands and an immersive experience extended to guests who, if they were willing to embark on a simple series of quests, could earn access to the Secret Captains Quarters and sign his logbook as honored crew of THE SYMBIOAT.

The SYMBIOAT was the latest passion project of Helix and his hard-working team out of Los Angeles. Helix is also known as ‘Maury’ of Maury’s Casino at the Lightning- In- A- Bottle Festival

The Immersive Symbioat

The SYMBIOAT, a Mississippi riverboat ‘stuck out of time’ from the year 1868 (the last year a full eclipse was seen in that area) hosted all sorts of strange and unusual guests from all time periods, each with their own backstories and motivations for staying onboard the ghostly riverboat. Mystic Midway was happy to collaborate with Symbioat Director Helix in wrangling additional characters from The Midway Ensemble, in helping bring the lively world of the SYMBIOAT to life and support festival guests having Magical Journeys.

Swamp Shack Adventures

The Professor assisted art director Maddy and the SYMBIOAT art crew in creating an enticing and mysterious 'Swamp Shack' environment designed to invite guests into a deeper festival-going experience.

The Shack resembled a 'backwoods/Voodoo/Conjure Practitioners Botanica' with shelves filled with jars of strange roots, herbs and altars devoted to various helpful Spirits. Allies, Deities- glowing with candles and ornamental Veve symbols and sigils.

The Professor, playfully alternating personas from night to night, greeted guests with a series of simple rituals driven by guests themselves, ending with a group Storycard reading and sending some guests on immersive quests in order to join the Symbioat crew.

Gina, Jewelz and Renae rocked Storycard readings in The Mystery Shack as Lady Fortuna: The Mystic Oracle of The Midway, each with their own distinctive style. Many guests found useful ‘luminous mirrors and epiphanies’ at the hands of these caring Goldfire facilitators.

MYSTIC MIDWAY STORYCARDS

Mystic Midway Storycards were employed to offer readings to the eager groups of guests who wandered into the Swamp Shack that they might ‘find what they didn’t even know they were looking for’.

The Storycards function as ‘mirrors of inquiry’ into the narrative aspects of an individual’s or group’s ‘Story’. Playful banter helped guests to be more open, receptive and present to the readings as a ‘Brave group of Mythic Adventurers’. Guests were invited to pick a card (with a specific query in mind or not) and asked to reflect to their fellow adventurers what they saw in the card.

Through this simple facilitated process of reflection, listening and sharing, guests were given the means to go deeper into their experience in ways they might not normally. Guests found permission to reflect on ‘hot’ issues that may either followed them to the festival or might have come up for them during their week.

FACILITATING EMERGENCE

Guests who had made the epic pilgrimage to SYMBIOSIS were clearly ready for amazing experiences, so how could we help?

We’ve seen the term ‘Transformational Festival’ used a lot in recent years it was apparent over the past year that SYMBIOSIS was ready to take on that mantle once again. Gratefully, these festivals do a lot of the heavy lifting towards opening guests up to having ‘peak experiences’ and considering new ways of seeing and relating.

The question we went into the experience with was: ‘How can we be of service for guests’ process of emergence, transformation and help them find the joy in conjuring COMMUNITY GOLDFIRE?’

Through the simple process described above, the Storycards served as mirrors for guests, reminding them of the untapped potential, Mastery and access to inner Beauty & Power they could draw upon as ‘Mythic Heroes, Heroines and Playwrights of their own Stories’.

We provided a safe and welcoming space for guests to open up, share, listen and be witnessed in their journeys.

We gently reminded guests that they were adventurers on a Great Quest with the Strength, Allies and had ‘light enough within them to lead them Home’ - RUMI

It was a truly profound week for all the Midway Players and an honor to get to share so many Goldfire moments with total strangers, many whom we will never see again!

Swamp Noir Medicine Show with Wesley Morgan and Mr.NOBODY

Wesley Morgan, ‘swamp noir’ musician, storyteller and long-time collaborator with The Mystic Midway brought his soulful musicianship to the Symbioat.

Mr.Nobody, a jovial skeletal member of The Midway was brought out by Wesley’s soulful tunes for some impromptu ‘Revival Tent Show’ -inspired antics.

Mr.Nobody’s character motivation is primarily to help guests identify any FEAR they may be experiencing and release it. Mr.Nobody would mime the act of taking the fear from guests mouths, once they were named and then place in it his own mouth - excitedly and gratefully showing his appreciation once the FEARS were received.

Gifting The Festival

It was surprising and delightful to see how positively festival-goers responded to the many gifts we gave out at the Festival. As SYMBIOSIS featured many ‘official’ and non-official vendors, the power of THE GIFT held more power here than it might at Burning Man, self-proclaimed home of ‘gift culture’.

The many readings The Professor, Renae, Gina and Jewelz gave out were a form of gift- as well as the over one hundred unique Mystic Midway cabochons with art by TED NAIFEH and new original Mystic Midway postcards by Visionary artist LUCA CAREY, entitled ‘Crossing The Mystic Threshold’ (both pictured above and at the top).

THANK YOU!

Thank you to Helix, Maddy and Co. of The Symbioat for having us out to participate with the wonderful and heartfelt community space SYMBIOAT offered festival guests.

SPECIAL THANKS to Mystic Midway Ensemble players Gina, Renae and Jewelz for coming out to play as LADY FORTUNA and E. & B. for being magical allies!

SPECIAL THANKS to Wesley Morgan for bringing that swamp noir sound that Mr.NOBODY just can’t get enough of!

THANK YOU to the SYMBIOSIS promoters and crew from all over the world who pulled off such a visionary event celebrating PEACE, UNITY & DIVERSITY.